In total, 136 sets of blood cultures from 83 cases were SAGpositive.
Of these, five cases were judged to be the result of
contamination. Thus, there were 78 cases in total during the study
period. Patient demographics, clinical characteristics, microbiological
characteristics, therapy and outcomes are summarized in
Table 1. The most common source of infection was hepatobiliaryrelated
(32.1%). Multiple sources of infection were found in three
cases (3.8%). One case had infective endocarditis (IE) complicated
by vertebral osteomyelitis. Another case had sigmoid cancer with
an intra-abdominal abscess extending to the spinal space, then
complicated by bacterial meningitis. The last case had concomitant
hepatic abscess and iliopsoas abscess. IE was seen in four cases;
among these, two cases involved both the mitral and aortic valves.
Two other cases involved the mitral valve alone and two cases
required valve replacement. Central nervous system (CNS) infection
was seen in two cases. One case had a brain abscess and the other
had bacterial meningitis. Among the 71 cases whose sources of
infection were found, the same organisms were identified as being
from a local site in 30 cases (42.2%).